45 students chained up in seminary, recovered

At least 45 people, including children, were rescued from the seminary.

KARACHI: The police moved into the Afghan Camp on Monday night near Sohrab Goth to recover around 45 persons who were kept chained-up in a basement of a seminary.

The Gadap Town police superintendent Rao Anwar, while talking toThe Express Tribune, said, “Those recovered are aged between 12 and 50 years and are mainly of Pakhtun ethnicity.” The SP added that those kept in the basement were students who were subjected to torture by the administration of the seminary. “A few drug addicts and mentally challenged persons were also among those who were recovered,” Anwar said.

“It seems that the administration was running a sort of religious school-cum-rehabilitation-centre and were receiving considerable sums of money from parents of those kept in for that purpose,” SP Anwar added.

According to the police, the administrator of the seminary, Mufti Dawood, fled during the raid. However, the police apprehended his subordinate Qari Muhammad Usman along with two watchmen from the site. “Usman is a resident of Battagram district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and arrived in Karachi hardly two months ago. We recovered a bunch of keys from his possession that include those to the basement,” Anwar said.

The recovered persons will be handed over to their parents after investigations and legal formalities are completed.

Facebook Conversations

Reader Comments (31)

This is a lie to defame the good peaceful religious Muslims. We Pakistani Muslims cannot do that to the other Muslims. It must be a conspiracy with the signature of Zardari, PPP and HH. SC should take action against the real culprits PPP. Mullah/military/judiciary alliance Zindabad.

Police should made all out efforts that abducted children should be handed over to their parents/guardians and at the same time the accused should be arrested and prosecuted according to the law of the land.

The law enforcement people should also try to find out if there are any other seminary where children are kept in illegal confinement.

Now this wasn’t a Madarsah as widely claimed by the media, children were not brought in but their fathers brought them.. Children were mostly drug addicts or not on the ‘right path’ according to their families.. their families brought them in so they get them corrected… we saw a drug addict who has been to jail now in the rehabilitation center.,… In no way I am justifying this, but just to remove the propaganda that it was a madrassah, it is called one because the name was used to fool parents to believe that their children would learn religious education.. in the name of rehabilitation, they were tortured and misused..

The fact this so-called madrassa is located between Afghan camp where beating to get ppl corrected is very much prevalent.. most of the students were brought in by family who were sometimes drug addicts or ‘not so good’ in parent’s eyes… a rehabilitation center between an unpopulated afghan camp , u can’t expect them to use scientifical measures… this afghan style rehabilitation center which also uses Islam to ‘correct the patients’ should not be generalized as madrassahs and this propaganda should stop..Recommend

This is not to justify harsh treatments but sometimes human beings are so wrong and wicked in their ways that in order to bring them to the right path, learned people have to bend their finger (ungali tedhi karnee padati hai). Imagine the benefits to the world if even one of them became a good Muslim.

If the parents were paying the madrassah whatever to keep the children/adults chained, wont they do it again? better to figure out the motives of abandonment by the relatives/parents and decide each case accordingly. best to send the kids to SOS or eidhi and the adults too, rather than getting them further abused. also the perpetrators of the crime should be severely dealt with, and publicly, to act as a deterrent against further abuse.
AND if any militancy type training is involved, then all of them need psychological rehabilitation before being returned to society.

@Syed when I say it wasn’t a madarsah means it isn’t a proper madarsah, it is located in a relatively remote area of Karachi, unpopulated afghan camp… it highlights the afghan mentality of using pain to rectify the ‘misguided’.. this should not be generalized as madarsah as there are thousands of them in Karachi doing much better job… any one could name a rehabilitation center what they want and this torturous rehabilitation center was disguised as a madarsah to fool parents..Recommend

Unnecessary media hype, chaining drug abuse victims and mentally handicapped for treatment is standard procedure even in hospitals.There were a whole lot of normal kids being given education at this institution, only the ones under treatment were chained and the highest fee being charged here was only Rs.1350 which is much less than what hospitals ask for treatments such as these.
So before bashing madressas, get to know the facts first.

Barring Mirza there are saner comments. While appreciating the folks who felt the pain for our nation’s plight, it has been conveniently ignored that a number of internees were sent to Afghanistan for Jihad.Amongst the chained internees there were kids below the age of 10 years. Were they also the spoil brats?Let’s stop politicizing the issue and examine the matter in its true perspective.Nations who gave priority to education in solid sciences, gained financial clout, while we are holding begging bowl till today.We as a nation have to face the realm. Our budget for Education is minuscule compared to Defense & Govt Spending.We got to set our priorities right and substitute these Madrassas with proper cost-free schooling backed by a technical knowledge.Ignoring this segment can land us into horrendous situation.
Time is if essence.

Since when madrassa became a drug rehabilitation center! I thought they are there to produce ‘Jihad’ cannon fodder only. I hope they were not attending the crash course on ‘head chopping’ , though this all is not new, there was a BBC documentary on Sepa Sahaba madrassas with similar theme long time ago, we all know how Sepa Sahaba Madrassa factory is producing peace loving, God fearing leaders.

I was only being sarcastic. Unlawful detention and brain washing for terrorism cannot be supported by anybody. All acts of terrorism must be condemned. Thanks for the comments and take a note. Regards,
Mirza

50 Children were found being absused, intimidated and chained in a Karachi madarsaa.It is clearly a violation of UN charter that children cannot be chained in schools or in Madarsas, or employed in any manner. To me it seems these madarsaas are supplying / sold children after brainwashing them to terrorist organizations that prevails in Pakistan. United Nations if it is honest in their approach to the well being of the children either US / europeans or other countries, it should take immediate steps to stop all the madarsaas operating in Pakistan, rehabilitate these children to the main stream for hounarable living. America should immediately stop funding Pakistan and force Pakistan to close similar madarsas in the whole of Pakistan.